We've got spring fever at Better Farm, and have kicked the season off right by getting seed flats planted, harvesting an aquaponic bounty and copious amounts of free-range eggs, rehabilitating some unwanted plants, making signs for our new trails system, and pasteurizing last year's compost.

Seed Planting
Our artichokes, peppers, mulberries, huckleberries, leeks, and several other varieties of produce have been planted in flats throughout the main house at the farm. Aloe plants have been divided and repotted to encourage growth for a budding skincare and essential oil line (stay tuned for more information about that!).

Aquaponic Harvest

We have a variety of beautiful, organic lettuces ready to go! Please contact us at (315) 482-2536 or info@betterfarm.org if you would like to place an order.

Egg Heads

The chickens are hip to the season shift and are laying dozens upon dozens of beautiful Ameraucana, Leghorn, and Bard Rock eggs. A dozen eggs is $3 and includes a variety of all the above-listed varieties

Plant Rehab
A trip to Watertown on
Friday yielded a handful of sick cactuses and orchids being discarded
at a local store that we'll be rehabilitating over the next several
months. This "plant hospital" will afford us the opportunity to educated
visitors on bringing plants back to life—and keep these beauties from
ending up in the garbage.

New Trail-System Signs

Over the weekend a group of us walked the new trail system in Better Farm's woods—and made trailhead signs to guide the way. By summer, we'll have a map to go along with the trails, as well as trail markers and camping sites. E-mail us if you'd like to volunteer on this project.

Many
people choose the safest route to prevent hitchhiking seeds and damping-off by buying a pre-sterilized package of potting soil, if you
have a large amount of pots and flats to fill, this could be expensive. By taking a couple
of extra steps before you begin, you can use your own rich, organic compost. Some people "bake" their soil in their oven to kill
micro-organisms. But this process of sterilization kills everything, even the healthy
organisms that you have worked so hard to create. The answer
is simple: Instead of sterilizing compost and garden soil, pasteurize it. While sterilizing
kills virtually all surface-dwelling microorganisms, when you pasteurize your potting
mixture, it is only heated to a temperature that kills harmful organisms and leaves
beneficial organisms alone.

We experimented with this process, which wasn't as smelly as you might initially imagine; and we've been left with fluffy black soil that's going to be very very good to our seeds and seedlings in the garden.

Nicole Caldwell is a self-taught environmentalist, green-living savant and
sustainability educator with more than a decade of professional writing
experience. She is also the co-founder of Better Farm and president of
betterArts. Nicole’s work has been featured in Mother Earth News, Reader’s
Digest, Time Out New York, and many other publications. Her first book,
Better: The Everyday Art of Sustainable Living, is due out this July
through New Society Publishers.

Better Farm

Setting up for betterArts’ Children’s Room at this year’s North Country Goes Green Irish Fest in Watertown March 16-18. Thanks to the volunteers who came out to support our sister organization, which functions to expand access to the arts for all. www.betterarts.org

Snack break on a snowy afternoon.

Our compost initiative is expanding! Many thanks to @clayton_food_co_op for getting on board by donating food scraps to Better Farm to be fed to our sanctuary animals and turned into soil. Food waste accounts for up to 40 percent of “garbage” — so separating scraps out of what we throw away means a massive reduction in landfill waste. Compost contributes to soil regeneration, and fresh food scraps replace or supplement animal feed, reducing carbon emissions associated with food processing and transportation. Composting is a radical act we can all be doing several times every single day.

When archaeologists visit Better Farm.

February 28. Canadian border of New York. Garlic already sprouting. #thesethingsarenotnormal

🌱

A little pre-spring dirt worship with the girls.

Get on the bus! Registration for our 2018 sustainability program is now open, with lots of dates to choose from! bit.ly/2oAFFnh

#farmlife

Very excited to announce our new partnership with DiPrinzio’s Kitchen in Clayton! The fine-dining Italian restaurant and catering company is saving all its table scraps to be used as Better Farm’s gardens and fed to the pigs and chickens. Big ups to @mollicathebaker for facilitating this fabulous new project!

Neigh-bors Riddler, Blaze and Red enjoying the breakfast buffet.

🏰

#mondaymood

Sunday Funday with Buffalo the alpaca.

Nice haul today from a standing dead oak tree. #woodstoveseason

Somebody is SO EXCITED about all this fresh, organic hay! Thanks to everyone near and far who generously made donations to keep the hay supply flush alllllll winter long. Better Farm and all its beautiful beasts love you! 🐓🐖🦒🐴🦆🐥